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What a wonderful weekend. The skies are crystal blue and clear and everywhere is blooming….ahhhh this is how life is in the summer. Been so busy at work and with no time for baking, my appetite for baking was sky rocketing again. My little fingers agree with me as they wildly flip and tear through pages looking for inspiration. Heart beating with anticipation, it sings as I look through the delicious photos. I finally rested ton the tropical mango mousse cheesecake dessert again. Complimented by the succulent aroma of coconut, it truly reminded me of the tropics. This time I decided to add in strawberry to the mix as I found strawberries and mangoes go well together. I first made the coconut dacquoise. Then I made the mango mousse. To make the mango mousse, I first softened the gelatin with cold water. Next I pureed some fresh mangoes. Once the mangoes were pureed, cream cheese and sugar were beaten together till softened and then the mango puree was mixed in. Beat until homogenous and set aside. By now the gelatin has softened. Squeeze out the water and heat to dissolve the gelatin. When the gelatin has dissolved, add it to the mango/cream cheese mixture and set aside. Whip up the cream and fold into the mango/cream cheese mixture. Place a disc of dacquoise at the bottom of the cake pan and pipe in the mango/cheese mousse. Place the next disc of dacquoise on top. The Strawberry cheesecake mousse came next. The process is the same for the strawberry mousse cheesecake as the mango mousse. Steps are as follows: puree the fruit, soft and melt the gelatin, whip the cream cheese and sugar to soften, add in the fruit, combine the gelatin to the mixture and whip and fold the cream in to the strawberry cream cheese mixture. Once the mixture is complete, pipe on top of the second dacquoise and place in fridge to set. To decorate, I sliced up some mangoes and arranged them into a rose shape. Voila.

Result: OMG, this recipe was a keeper as everyone loved the combination of strawberry and mango. The coconut suited both flavours quite well. Next time one could try the combination of strawberry and litchee as summer was here.

Baking time again. Lately Vancouverites have been enjoying on some beautiful tropical fruits such as litchee, mango, watermelon etc etc. The weather certainly bodes well for picking them at their peak. With the strawberries and mangoes in season, I decided to make a strawberry mango tart. I first started to make the crust. As always I chose the pate sucre crust by Felder. I find that his recipe has the right levels of lightness and crispness to the pastry.

Key to a light and flaky pastry.

work the cold butter in with the flour until sand like texture than add the remaining ingredients

Next I made the pastry cream to fill the tarts once the tart was cooled.

TIPS:

do not over cook the pastry cream. Take it off the heat once the cream thickens and boils. Whisk constantly as the pastry cream will burn.

To prevent lumps of cornstarch, mix the sugar with the cornstarch first prior to adding it into the milk

Once the pastry cream has cooled, I then set to decorate the tart. Pastry Cream Recipe

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup castor sugar

1 tsp. vanilla essence. ( I chose to use a vanilla bean)

Result: This recipe is a keeper. Both strawberry and mango complimented each other. The pastry cream was light, smooth and creamy and added complexity to the dessert.

Let all the Vancouverites rejoice as another long weekend as come again. The weather certainly held up as the mercury hit the twenties all week. To start off the the long weekend, I was invited to afternoon tea by a college friend. A tantalizing tea gathering it turned out to be as friends sipped fragrant tea and savoured delicious desserts while catching up.

For the gathering I made some mango tarts. Mangoes were in season and I thought what better way than to bake with seasonal fruits. I first made the pate sucre. It has been a staple recipe for all my tarts. Next came the pastry cream. HK Pasty Chef Tony Wong had an amazing tip. He suggested that in order minimize lumpy pastry cream, caused by the corn starch cooking first without dissolving, combine it with the sugar first. Works every time!!!

Once the tarts were baked, a think layer of chocolate was spread onto the crust. When the pastry cream had cooled, I poured it into the crust. Sliced mangoes were added next and the final step was sprinkling of the toasted coconut. Voila!!!

Result: I found that the custard complimented the Mangoes quite nicely. Simplicity wins again with the Mangoes being the star of this dessert. I certainly hope the tart was well received at the afternoon tea gathering!!!

Finally some warm weather and sun this weekend. The week had been miserable with pouring rain and wind so imagine everyone’s delight when the sun finally decide to show itself.

I decided to redo the coconut dacquois and mango cream cheese mousse cake. The last time I followed the instructions as per measurement but found the mousse cake quite sweet for my liking. This was due to the sugar added to the already sweet mango puree. The mirror obviously did not help as it also contained sugar. As a note to readers, the mango puree made from fresh mangoes was sweet enough, hence add the extra sugar at your discretion. The next tweek I made was the dacquoise. I reduced the icing sugar. I had better success with the dacquoise this time as the egg whites/sugar where whipped properly. AS a third revision, I added about 20 g more mango puree to the suggested measurement. By doing so, the flavour was more pronounced. As a finale tweek, I also chopped up some fresh mango to add to the mousse cake. I also decorate the dish with some beautifully scent chocolate petals, given by a friend. The results were more to my liking and it was less sweet.

For decoration, I chose to decorate the cake with a gum paste carnation. I had previously taken the course with Michaels and thought the colours would compliment the colour scheme. The results were more to my liking and it was less sweet.

In light of the spectacular ending of the Summer which happened over this weekend. I decided to make something to remember summer by. That is before I head out to volunteer at a local sports arena. I had some extra dacquoise left over from the mousse cake and instead of letting them to go to waste, I decided upon making some cool refreshing treats.

Ice cream sandwich and popsicles seem to have gained momentum over the summer months as one could see little popup stands selling them. A favorite amongst youngster or adults reminiscing about their childhood readily stand in the long lineup for cool refreshing treat to battle the scorching summer sun. Which prompts of my project of the day, ice cream sandwiches. It was rather simple to make considering I had the ingredients to make it with.

First things first, to make the cylindrical center of sorbet and ice cream I used a mold. Using acetate to line the mold for easier removal, I scooped the sorbet into the molds. Freeze the sorbet until firm. To assemble the sandwiches, simply unmold and arrange onto the dacquoise cookies.

The inspiration of this creation really dated back to chocolate making from VCC. I met a wonderful young lady, lets call her GN. It’s fairly rare that one found someone with so much enthusiasm and passion about their craft that she’s in a class of her own. From day one, I felt her passion and zest for pastry spill into me. Her positivity radiated outwards and outshone the rest of the students. After the course I would go visit her or chat about pastry, our true love. 😛 If it weren’t for her constant encouragement and challenging me to push my boundaries, I would not be were I am today in baking. Through our endless chats about pastry chefs and baking, Tony Wong came into the picture. Apparently he was hailed as one of the forthcoming pastry chefs in Hong Kong with numerous accolades. Curious about him, I bought his books. The rest was history. All his recipes were immaculately detailed to the point of temperature and time. His photos were stunning and beautifully illustrated detailing many intricacies. Yes, this was one of my favourite books to this day.

Wong took on a asian approach to pastry making with a french flare. While his creations were less sweet and more light in comparison to North American desserts; nonetheless, each dessert was constructed beautifully with complexity and the flavours complimented each other well. My first project was making the Mango Mascarpone Mousse Cake. The cake was combination of cheese, mousse and dacquoise.

The dacquoise was made by sifting icing sugar, then adding the coconut and toasted ground almonds. Egg whites and sugar were beaten until stiff prior to folding in the coconut mixture. The completed mixtures was then pipped into rounds for baking at approx. 330F for 20 mins.

The shape the disks, I just used a circular cutter to them the dacquoise when it was warm.

Next came the mousse/cheesecake. Gelatin was first softened in cold water. The puree was split in half with the 1st 1/2 of the puree warmed with the sugar. As a tip, don’t boil the mixture as you would loose the delicate taste of the mango. The remainder was warmed up with the cream cheese. It is crucial to heat the cheese with the puree until smooth prior to adding in the gelatin. As another note, whisk the mixture until fully incorporated. Combine the two mixtures, cool and fold in the whipped cream. Place a disk of the dacquoise at the bottom and pipe in the mousse. Insert the another piece of daquoise in the middle and repeat with mousse. Chill until set.

The mirror comprised of mango puree and neutral mirror; the ratio was 2:1. Temperature was crucial Warm mixture to 50C and cool down to 35-40C prior to pouring onto the set mousse.

As for decoration, I added a mango ball, white chocolate and freeze dried raspberries as decoration. As an accompaniment, 2 chocolate straws where added with a scoop of Raspberry and Strawberry Sorbet.

The cake was sensational, creamy, light and refreshing. The delicate mango mousse tickled my taste buds and was complimented by a sweet aromatic coconut dacquoise; a smell that lingered in our house when it was baked. For me this recipe is definitely a keeper. Thanks to the chef who created such an astounding dessert 🙂

As an ice cream conniseur that I am, one could see me 1st in the line ups at ice cream boutiques, wide eyed and longingly looking at flavours, on a hot summer day. My favorite was italian gelato. There would be smiles everywhere. Up and down the street, individuals would be licking their gobs of ice cold refreshing treat in the sweltering heat. Big surprise when I took an ice cream course. I was amaze at what one could do when making ice cream; there was virtually limitless combinations. The highlight was making an ice cream cake and bombe.

With the wonderfully warm sunny we have been receiving, albeit the rain today :(, it was the optimal time for ripe berries and better yet ICE CREAM 🙂 With the strawberries I chose at Krause Berry Farms and raspberries in the fridge, I took a chance at making Sorbet.

Keys in making Sorbet:
-Make sure the fruit is ripe for better quality and taste
-Make sure to place the drum into the freezer for at least 24 hours
-Sugar content 1:1 ratio of sugar and water
-Alcohol improves the flavour and reduces the freezing temperature

Because I love both strawberry and raspberry, I combined the two fruits together to make the 1st sorbet. Wow the fresh strawberries were exquisite and aromatic. One could tell they were ripe as they produce a very sweet fragrance. The strawberries were first to be pureed and the raspberries came next. Sugar and water were measured and a simple syrup was created. Once cooled, I combined it with the pureed fruit and poured it into the ice cream machine to make sorbet. Giddy as a kindergarten, I was excited to see the syrup slowing thickening and becoming sorbet. Imagine my ecstasy when the I scooped out globs of the frozen treat. Next came the Mango Sorbet. Basically it was the same process as making the strawberry and raspberry sorbet. A tear may have rolled run my happy face when I saw the delicious golden yellow syrup thicken and form as Mango Sorbet was one of my favorites. Now I have two tubs of sorbet and more to come.